Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Roscoea purpurea 'Cinnamon Stick'

As luck would have it Pam and I (see yesterday if you don’t know what Pam I am talking about) arrived in Seattle with a few minutes to spare before we needed to be at the hotel. Naturally I had to take her to City Peoples Garden Store! As I’ve said before this is the place where it all started to click for me (gardening that is)…and I wanted her to see my first urban garden hot-spot. Wouldn’t you know it I discovered a new plant while there!? Roscoea purpurea 'Cinnamon Stick'… Hardy to Zone 6 (2 zones colder than me!) this ginger relative...you can see that in the stem/leaf structure, right?... ...has an amazing red ridged stem. And of course an all together pathetic little lavender flower which (should it ever appear) will quickly be pinched off. Now that I’m home I’m asking myself why I only bought one…

7 comments:

I had a Roscoea beesiana that was quite a bit less interesting than that one, but the flowers were white and orchid-y. I guess it has been swallowed up by aggressive neighbors...will have to go look, I had quite forgotten about it.

Roscoea are one of those plants I haven't paid much attention to before but planted out a few as we were given some a few years ago, to find that they reliably come back :)Now I'm starting to buy a few more. I like that Cinnamon Stick, a new one to me and the colour is lovely. Will keep an eye out for one here.

Nice! Beautiful contrast between the ridged red stems and the bright foliage. Reminds me a little of purple Tradescantia. And I'm wondering what you did with your plants during the fling...did they hang out in your hotel room and watch HBO?

Grace, I stopped at Jungle Fever in Tacoma on my way home yesterday...guess what I saw there!? Already on it's way it looks like.

ricki, I wish these flowers were white. Then they might get to stay.

compost, nice to see you too! Hope to see the group photo (with you photoshopped in) soon.

Ryan, I figure I brought home 2 since there are a couple of stems in the container (which is probably even worse). Hopefully it will make like the gingers I know and multiply...

Mark and Gaz, the red is why I noticed it...if the stem was green I probably would have walked on by.

MulchMaid, would you believe that not once during my 4 days at the hotel was the TV turned on? I am not a very good American. They were giving us plants right and left during the fling! Mine were all lined up on the table by the window soaking up the sun. Many of them (things not dangerous enough) found a loving home at a friends house in Seattle.